The present invention relates to computers and, more particularly, to computer support services. The present invention facilitates cooperative support services when the services of more than one vendor are required.
Much of modern progress is associated with the development and proliferation of computers that manipulate data in accordance with programs of instructions. Printed and electronic documentations are typically made available to assist users in using computer programs. However, it is not uncommon for software vendors to be inundated with requests for support.
Currently, the software support organizations of many software vendors rely on third party software support partners or value added resellers (VARs) to alleviate the full burden of supporting their software. These third-party support providers often provide their direct customers with customized versions of the base software products as a value add. When there are issues with the product, the customer contacts the third party vendor, who investigates the problem to determine if it lies within the bounds of the customization or if it is a base product level issue that they cannot fix with a known patch or configuration change.
In the case of a base product issue, the third party vendor must in turn contact the software vendor that supplies the base software product. The original software vendor must then determine the cause of the issue and a solution for the issue. This information is conveyed back to the third party support provider, which in turn must convey the information to the end customer or provide the appropriate fix for the customer. In this scenario, the third-party and original vendor support personnel must spend time by both manually examining the customer issues and relaying information back and forth between the third party organization and base software vendor company. These multiple exchanges result in considerable delays for the waiting customer.
In another scenario, a first vendor provides software that integrates with that of a second vendor. If the vendors do not cooperate, customers might find themselves without a solution when each vendor attributes a problem to the other's software. If they do cooperate, inter-vendor interactions are costly to the vendors and result in frustrating delays to customers. What is needed is a system, preferably highly automated, for providing coordinated support from different vendors to a user.